After 10 years in Silicon Valley, Glenn Kelman has returned to his Seattle roots. The 34-year- old entrepreneur, who co-founded San Francisco-based Plumtree Software at the age of 25, recently was named chief executive of Redfin.

The Seattle online real estate service (www.redfin.com) allows home buyers and sellers to browse listings and historical property information using aerial maps. Backed with $1.25 million in financing from Madrona Venture Group, Redfin plans to accelerate marketing efforts and expand to five new cities.

Kelman, a 1989 graduate of Interlake High School in Bellevue, sat down with the Seattle P-I to talk about how Redfin plans to capitalize on changes in the online real estate market, competition from heavily funded competitors and upcoming challenges. To listen to the full interview and find out more about Kelman, visit John Cook's Venture Blog.

On why he joined Redfin: "I had never seen a site that was so freaky addictive."

On the opportunity in online real estate: "It is the final frontier. Everything else that you could sell over the Web -- from human organs to tennis shoes -- you can now buy. But real estate, that's a $61 billion market that has never been put on the Web. There have been a zillion people that have died trying, and I sort of said: 'Wow, that is really big. That is really crazy.' And that seemed fun. ... You wanna work on something big, so that if you win, everybody wins, and you really have an impact on the world. And that can get you out of bed."

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On Redfin's strategy: "We are not trying to serve the real estate agents. For a long time that was the only way to make money in this business was to sell people out to real estate agents. What we are trying to do instead is actually serve the consumer directly. ... The one thing that Redfin has been really good at has been at delighting people."

On the competition from HouseValues, Zillow.com and others: "Having an idea first and moving faster is our main advantage. And we have enough money to do what we want, but, yeah, of course, I worry about them. Those guys are talented guys and they are trying to do great things."

On expansion plans: "The first place we are going to go is California, just because it is a big market and the regulations are good. ... They put a lot of data online, which makes it easier for us."

On upcoming challenges: "Building a brand. Nobody's heard of Redfin outside of Seattle. And the people who have heard of it here have heard of it because it is such a crazy awesome Web site, but not because we advertise or anything like that."